Presidential Recommendation

Journalism 2008-2279
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Agenda Item for the December 8, 2008, Trustees Meeting

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

TIDES CENTER

FUND: Journalism

PRIORITY AREA: Electronic and New Media

PRIOR CONTRIBUTIONS:

Date Amount
2007 $2,032,000
2008 2,077,500
Total $4,109,500

REQUESTED AMOUNT: $249,529 TOTAL COST: $249,529

RECOMMENDED AMOUNT: $249,529

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: None.

ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET: $69,801,594

PURPOSE OF GRANT: For NewsCloud to create and launch two social media publications on
Facebook to test strategies that leverage social media environments to engage youth in news and
information.
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OPPORTUNITY: In an era of participatory media, news organizations need to find new ways to
reach their audiences, particularly among the youth. While only 6 percent of young adults say
they regularly read or listen to the news (State of the News Media 2008), a full 85 percent of
college students say they use Facebook. This project tests strategies for leveraging the power of
social media to engage youth in communities of interest associated with news.

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND: Jeff Reifman is a former Microsoft and MSNCB.com

developer who started NewsCloud in 2006 as an open-source social media community focused
on news and information. NewsCloud was a finalist in the 2006 News Challenge grant
competition, and as a result, we have been working with him to develop a project that advanced
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his 2006 proposal beyond a mere social networking site. Since his initial interaction with Knight
Foundation in 2006, Reifman has developed a strong relationship with journalism program staff,
which has been impressed by his tenacity, commitment to social media and community building,
and technical expertise. The project is targeted, with clear and specific assessment metrics and
documented outcomes, and it is likely to produce valuable knowledge and insight about a key
question facing journalism.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES: This project will create two social media publications on Facebook,
using NewsCloud’s open-source Facebook platform. Each is designed to assess the effectiveness
of a different kind of “community of interest,” and a different approach to outreach and
marketing. The first is an issue-based publication focused on global warming and
environmentalism; the project will employ a grassroots strategy to build community and
audience around environmental issues and activism. NewsCloud’s Jeff Reifman has effectively
developed strategies to increase the likelihood of success. In particular, he has confirmed a
working partnership with Grist, one of the best-known and oldest online magazines devoted to
environmental journalism. Grist’s demographic is similar to Facebook’s, making it a highly
effective and appropriate partner; the magazine has agreed to leverage its readership – more than
700,000 unique visitors a month – to promote the NewsCloud project and drive traffic to the site.

The second proposed publication is a geographic publication focused on Minnesota

college students; it will use a more traditional advertising/viral marketing approach. To ensure
knowledge capture and replicability, a post-doctoral scholar from the University of Minnesota
will conduct original research on the project to identify effective strategies and map user interest
and engagement.

Project Development Schedule

Month 1
• Hire development, outreach staff, and design contractor
• Work with UMN research team to define application requirements and outreach
strategy
o Develop grassroots strategy, including a prize catalog; inventory tracking; leader
board; and a point redemption system
o Develop interface to announce leaders, prizes, partners, etc.
• Develop Global Warming publication from NewsCloud Facebook application code
• Begin recruiting partners

Month 2
• Launch Global Warming publication, including street team initiative
• Continue marketing, support of Global Warming community
• Begin development of College News publication
• Continue recruiting partners for College News publication
• Continue development of overall code base, features, bug fixing in Global Warming
application
Month 3 – 4
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• Launch College News publication

• Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication
• Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication
• Support UMN researchers with their study work
Month 5-6
• Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication
• Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication
• Solidify open source components and documentation of Facebook publication
applications
• Prepare technology post-mortem for Phase One
• Support  UMN  researchers  with  their  study  work  
Research Schedule

Months 1-3
• Refine and agree on research questions
• Develop valid survey instruments, which involve brief literature review to inform valid
survey design and getting feedback from advisory group; pilot testing with small group of
college-age participants
• Secure Institutional Review Board approval for work with human subjects (6 week
process; process goes much smoother if subjects are 18 years of age or older!)
• Set up survey in Survey Monkey, etc.

Month 4 & 5
• Send recruiting email/message to publication users; survey incentive will help get a
higher response rate.
• Recruit for focus groups ($50 incentive)
• Provide 3 week window for subjects to take the survey – weekly reminders
• Analyze survey data – trends/questions to follow-up on in focus groups
• Do data dump of internal statistical tracking – inform focus group questions
• Conduct focus groups and transcribe data AFTER survey completion & look at site stats
• Analyze focus group data

Month 6 - 8
• Review survey, focus group and internal site-tracking data analysis
• Write up report for publication on (1) what engages users; (2) what does this
“engagement” look like (3) How did the publication contribute to the mission of the
organization.

ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES: The two Facebook publications will create communities of

interest that engage young adults with news and information. The project will track the evolution
of those communities to assess the impact of content types, outreach efforts, and marketing
strategies in order to inform news organizations about their relative impact and effectiveness.

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EVALUATION: The project will employ a mixed methods approach to data collection and
analysis; University of Minnesota researchers will collect quantitative data on user
characteristics and interactions with the publication (e.g., frequency, duration, features utilized,
and activities) as well as qualitative data on the users’ experience and perspectives to produce an
accurate and comprehensive account. The goal is to publish these findings, thereby contributing
to a wider understanding of the project. Such publication in peer-reviewed journalism will
confirm the integrity of the research model.

RISK ASSESSMENT: Risk is moderate. Risk in achieving grant activities is low. Both Reifman
and UMN researcher Christine Greenhow have significant professional experience and a proven
track record in their respective areas of expertise. The biggest risk is the possibility that youth
will not be attrachted to these particular communities of interest – an outcome that will inform
future efforts and serve an important purpose.

COMMUNICATIONS: The project budget includes funding to support advertising outreach and
viral marketing efforts for the College Students publication, as well as “street team” activities for
the Environmental/Global Warming project. NewsCloud and UMN will leverage their own
communities and information systems to publicize the projects, as well as the viral marketing
features of the Facebook platform. Guerilla marketing/PR will include distribution of prizes, t-
shirts, and stickers. Publication of the research in professional journals will disseminate the
project’s findings.

STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends a one year, $249,529 grant. The first
payment of $124,529 will be made upon approval and Knight Foundation receipt of a signed
grant agreement. The second and final payment of $124,529 will be made in Feb. 2009 after
receiving a satisfactory progress report. A final report will be due Oct. 2009. This grant will be
administered through the Tides Center in San Francisco. Tides Center is a public charity that
partners with individuals or groups to provide back-office services, a legal framework and
capacity building support. Tides will provide administrative assistance for contracts, payments to
grantees, payments to subcontractors, accounting requirements and other administration as
necessary. Tides will retain 6 percent of the grant amount as an administration fee.

Dianne Lynch, Knight Foundation consultant

Gary Kebbel, Journalism Program Director
Jessica Goldfin, Journalism Program Associate